I'm not going to embed it here, but there's a youtube video of a Spore goatse creature. Pretty funny, actually...

What [the UM police and the FBI] were looking for, Carroll says, was an informant—someone to show up at “vegan potlucks” throughout the Twin Cities and rub shoulders with RNC protestors, schmoozing his way into their inner circles, then reporting back to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, a partnership between multiple federal agencies and state and local law enforcement. The effort’s primary mission, according to the Minneapolis division’s website, is to “investigate terrorist acts carried out by groups or organizations which fall within the definition of terrorist groups as set forth in the current United States Attorney General Guidelines.”

Carroll would be compensated for his efforts, but only if his involvement yielded an arrest. No exact dollar figure was offered.

via

Medical Adoptions:

Even though I'm in good health, I have a number of health risks and can't face the risks of long donor lists. My young son from Uzbekistan is smart, ambitious, loving, and young enough that I'm sure to be safe until he turns 18 in 2022.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says he asked an Ohio museum to return his Austrian army tank because he was concerned about the upkeep and wants to offer rides to schoolchildren.

More than one in 100 adults in the United States is in jail or prison, an all-time high that is costing state governments nearly $50 billion a year, in addition to more than $5 billion spent by the federal government, according to a report released today.
With more than 2.3 million people behind bars at the start of 2008, the United States leads the world in both the number and the percentage of residents it incarcerates, leaving even far more populous China a distant second, noted the report by the nonpartisan Pew Center on the States.

So back in September of 2006 Congress passed a bill, The SAFE Port Act designed to funnel large amounts of money to politically connected businesses improve security at U.S. Ports. In one his last acts as Senate Majority Leader, Bill Frist used his surgical prowess to graft the totally unrelated Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act to the certain-to-pass SAFE Port Act. This banned monetary transfers to any internet gambling sites (except of course lotteries, fantasy sports, and horse racing). This of course pissed off several foreign companies and led to a successful WTO challenge against the U.S. After negotiations, a settlement was reached, but the government has still not released the text of the agreement. Some blogger decided to file a Freedom of Information Act request for the agreement but this was what he got back:

The long political post that wasn't just a link was out of character so here's this:

Creepy vintage food ads